It's now been about 5 months since I left Ron, Argo, Baja and Mexico behind. Temporarily I do believe.
That means I have been wintering over in Iowa. Spring has now come in all her glory and made time spent in Iowa so much easier. It was, after all, a difficult winter. Nothing much to blog unless you wanted to hear how many inches of snow we had or that we had a record of over 90 days straight with the temperatures never rising to 32 degrees--freezing.
I was certainly happy, as I ALWAYS am about being retired. Not having to get out in the bad weather. But not much to blog about either.
So, I have decided to use this blog to post some of the watercolor paintings I have done in the past few months. Good heavens NO, they are not all here. But I have had requests to view some of them and this is by far easier than to email them individually to those who care to see them.
So bear with me. Remember that I am still very new to this idea of painting. I acknowledge having not an artistic bone in my body. And the paintings you see first are the more recent ones---the blog starts at the present and moves back in time. I don't expect them to be praised, or scorned, or critiqued. They are simply posted. I'll add to them as I see fit. After all, it is MY blog.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
April 7, 2010 Argo on Tour
Another case of taking gross liberties with my subject matter. Argo on a river in England. Argo did not normally have her fenders displayed unless she was actually moored against a dock. But I did like the look of them in the relection on the water. This was enjoyable for me just for the simple fact that I so enjoy thinking back on my time aboard Argo.
March 10, 2010 Cardinal 80th Birthday Card
This was the card I gave my mom on her 80th birthday last month. She almost didn't get it. The cardinal seemed to have way too much black coloring and it just didn't look natural. About that time, I swear! , a live cardinal landed on one of the linden trees just out my window. Low and behold it actually had even MORE black coloring than this painted cardinal.
March 8, 2010 Wildflowers
These are wildflowers like you've never seen before for the most part. Because they did not come from nature. I made them up. Quickly. It was a possible subject matter for a birthday card but this one and several before and after this one never amounted to much. But I will be trying to do flowers in the future. I have a real problem with impatience in my paintings. I want to see the painting done before it's barely begun. Usually I don't even wait for the paint to dry on it's own. I yank the project to the bathroom and hit it with the hair dryer. Some watercolor paintings are many layers of paint. If the earlier layer is not allowed to dry sufficiently adding another layer will too often turn the combining colors to mud! I know. Impatience. Something else I need to work on.
March 1, 2010 Alpine Valley
Not much I saved from February. But now I have some watercolor instructional DVD's that have arrived from England. What a difference! The instructional books were very good, and I will continue to use them in the future. But to actually SEE someone doing a painting or demonstrating a painting technique has been so very, very helpful. Not that it will make an instant artist out of me. These DVD's are not miracle workers unfortunately. But seeing how something is actually done is what I have needed.
This is one of the projects I watched and then tried to reproduce. No, actually this is the 3rd attempt at this project but a much improved version certainly.
This is one of the projects I watched and then tried to reproduce. No, actually this is the 3rd attempt at this project but a much improved version certainly.
February 21, 2010 Dancing in the Moonlight
This was a no-brainer as some people will readily agree. Totally unplanned. I was just experimenting with a night sky. Before I threw the paper away as scrap, I threw in a few random slices of color. It reminded me of fish flying out of the water. I added a few more slashes of color and decided to keep it after all. I believe this is what is referred to, at times, as 'happy accidents'.
January 22, 2010 Pelicano
I tried so hard with this pelican,( or pelicano as I now think of them,) that I almost shredded the paper on which I was painting. Pelicanos are my favorite birds, and I wanted so much to do well on this rendition. This was from a photo I took of a pelicano who was standing approximately 3 feet from me atop the bow of Argo one fine sunny La Paz morning. This fellow was actually featured in an earlier blog post 'Pelicano on the Prowl' back in August 2009.
I'll be back to try this one again after I have more experience.
January 12, 2010 Senorita of 16th of Septiembre, La Paz
This is yet another painting based on a photo from La Paz. The senorita was actually sitting on a fine horse leading a delegation of perhaps 10 or 12 other young female horse riders during the parade celebrating 2009's Mexican Independence Day on September 16th. Here she has been transported to a comparative wasteland, but the actual scene was more than I could attempt.
December 16, 2009 Christmas Card from Iowa
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First watercolor project I was actually happy with. I sent this out as my 2009 email Christmas card.
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